We had excellent weather for this Castle Crags fieldtrip of a little over four miles, starting at the Flume Creek Trail, hiking up to the Pacific Crest Trail, over a ridge, and down to the Burtarse Falls Trailhead where we did a car shuttle back to the Flume Creek Trail. Most of Castle Crags Park had been logged in years past, but the last mile of the trail had many trees that appeared to be over 200 years old. The overstory included the conifers gray, knobcone, ponderosa, and sugar pines; Douglas-fir; white fir; and incense-cedar. We saw a variety of other plants, from buckbrush to California hazel; huckleberry oak; bigleaf maple; various dogwoods; black, Oregon, and canyon live oak, as well as the closely related tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus), both tree and shrub forms. This is an excellent time of year to walk this trail with its beautiful vistas of Castle Crags, the crunch of leaves underfoot. While the hike was only a little over four miles, it felt like five or more miles to most of us. -David Ledger
